Start Spreading the News: Zuffa Gains Ground in New York

By: Tristen CritchfieldFeb 14, 2013

A
UFC event in Madison Square Garden has long been a dream of
promotion boss Dana White, but now that idea might be closer to
becoming reality than ever before.

According to a report
written by Jim Genia on Fightline.com, Zuffa scored a major
victory in its lawsuit against New York on Wednesday, potentially
clearing the way for the Las Vegas-based organization to hold an
event in the state before 2013 draws to a close:

In what was supposed to be a day of oral arguments pertaining to
the State Attorney General's most recent motion to dismiss,
attorney John M. Schwartz – representing the Attorney General's
office – acknowledged unequivocally that the law prohibiting pro
MMA did not apply to amateur versions of the sport, and that as per
the statute, a pre-approved third-party sanctioning body could
oversee MMA events in the state. The admission of the latter
prompted the counsel representing Zuffa's interests to say that if
that were truly the case, then there'd be no further need to pursue
the lawsuit – which in turn prompted the presiding Judge Kimba Wood
of the U.S District Court of the Southern District of New York to
push both sides to immediately settle.

That means the Octagon could touch down in the Big Apple if the
promotion chooses to utilize a third-party sanctioning body such as
the World Kickboxing Association, the Professional Karate
Association or the U.S. Judo Association, according to
Fightline.com. The UFC serves as its own regulatory body in places
like Brazil, which does not have an athletic commission. It may not
be ideal, but by enlisting a pre-approved sanctioning body to
oversee an event, the UFC would take the New York State Athletic
Commission out of the picture entirely thanks to the 1997 statute
banning professional MMA in the state.

"We'll take it," UFC in-house counsel Timothy Bellamy told
Fightline.com. "We'd rather have the state lift the ban and we go
that route first, but we'll know in the next two months if that's
going to happen."